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Clark is happy to pay income tax, gas tax and sales tax, if it’s what the state and the community require. At the same time, he hates our country’s tax burden. Some states levy much higher taxes than others, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine. The publication recently charted out the 10 states with the worst tax burdens, and topping the list is Bridgeport, Conn. Second worst is New York City, followed by Portland, Maine, Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C. In sixth place is Chicago, seventh worst is Atlanta, and No. 10 is Los Angeles. These states have the highest property taxes, sales tax, and state and local taxes, according to Kiplinger’s. The state with the lowest tax burden is Cheyenne, Wyoming, which has one-sixth the burden of Bridgeport. In fact, Wyoming has no state income tax, no personal property tax, and one of the lowest gas taxes in the nation. After Cheyenne is Houston, followed by Jacksonville, then Memphis, Sioux Falls, Las Vegas, and Anchorage. The average person living in Cheyenne, Wyoming will have $10,000 more in his or her pocket at year’s end than the average Bridgeport resident. The country’s growth usually floats to areas with the lowest tax burdens, and the majority of these places have no state income tax. Many high-income earners move to Florida because there is no state income tax. Clark says that if you want economic growth in your community, you have to fight the size of your state and local government. If Clark were in charge, there would be no state income tax anywhere!

Clark wants to warn you about an ATM scam that could wipe out your bank accounts without you ever knowing. About a year ago, Clark issued a warning about an ATM scam that involves your card getting stuck in the machine. What happens is people put their card into the slot, enter their secret code and nothing happens. When they try to cancel the transaction, the card doesn’t come back out and people think it’s just stuck. In truth, there is a criminal across the street who has put a “sleeve” in the machine and has been watching as you enter you code. When you leave, that person retrieves your card and empties your account. If you used a Visa or MasterCard debit card, it could mean an even more expensive shopping spree. Banks don’t want to help because they assume that you gave someone your secret code and are trying to scam them. But the truth is that it is the bank’s problem. Many people don’t know that they have to report this as a crime right away. If it’s the weekend, you can’t report it until Monday, and that can be very detrimental. This crime is rapidly spreading, so you need to know what to do. If you suspect your card has been swiped, call the bank immediately on the hotline number. Don’t give the criminals a chance to wipe your bank account. Also, watch to see if someone stops at the ATM right after you and get his or her tag number. Just don’t attempt to confront him or her; it’s too dangerous. Try to only use ATM’s at your own financial institution because that will lessen the chaos of trying to deal with another institution if this happens to you.

Over the last few months, Clark has put out a few special warnings about the housing market. He is concerned that if you buy now and don’t own your home for a significant amount of time, you could get really burned. The New York Federal Reserve just released a report about the likelihood that the country is in a housing bubble. If we were, it would be a result of housing values going up so high that they didn’t make sense. The Fed economists say we are not in a bubble and that there are reasons to support the rapid rise in home values. Smart Money magazine agreed with the Fed on one level, saying there is no housing bubble. But the magazine did say there is a “finance bubble.” This is because people have been basing their purchase price on their monthly payment, not on the price of the home. Don’t worry though. The sky is not falling. But home values may continue to remain sluggish for a while. If you are in a home already, you may find that you are stuck in that house for a while. As a precaution, don’t buy a house unless you plan to live in for at least seven years. Clark usually recommends staying in a home for five years. But he's modifying it right now and adding on two extra years.

In college, Clark smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, and he now wonders what the effects are on his body. For the past 53 years, a British organization has been researching that exact question. The study found that if you quit by age 30 your body would repair itself well. If you quit by age 40, you may lose a few years or so of your life, but you will live nine years longer than someone who never quits. Think about living nine extra years with your family. Wouldn’t that be great! People who smoke are dying from lung cancer, throat cancer, and a number of cardiovascular diseases. The good news is that another recent study found that high school students are smoking at the lowest level of this generation. The cigarette companies want kids to smoke because that’s when a lot of life-long smokers start, but great advertising by anti-smoking campaigns have really paid off. High taxes on cigarettes have also helped people quit and live longer.

Clark takes many complaint calls each week about the three major credit reporting agencies and the errors that appear on our reports. Equifax, Transunion, and Experian all claim that their credit reports have an error rate of less than one percent. The truth is that the number of people who have errors on their credit reports are way in excess of that. And errors on reports have become so severe that they could keep you from getting a loan, cause you to incur a higher interest rate, cause you to have a high auto or homeowners insurance rate, and even get you fired from your job! According to a study done by PIRK, one in four of us have an error on our credit report that could somehow cost us in the wallet. And 80% of us have minor errors on our reports. With millions of people living in this country there are going to be mistakes, but there are two huge problems here. One is that the credit reporting agencies make it very difficult to fix an error on your report. Secondly, you might be denied insurance for your car, given an unfairly high interest rate on a loan, or even be denied a job because of these errors. The credit reporting industry needs to fix this problem ASAP or suffer consequences because of it.

Over the last 10 to 20 years, we have had steadily rising home values that have surpassed the rate of inflation. This has caused a tremendous amount of foreclosures, meaning about 1 in 60. So far this year, the number of foreclosures is up 56 percent compared to last year. The main reason is that people are applying for mortgages they can’t afford. As a result, foreclosures in the high end of the market now equal those in the moderate and low-end markets. Houses really deteriorate when they are foreclosed on, and the owners or mortgage companies don’t maintain their properties. The Wall Street Journal found that in northern California alone, high-end foreclosures are up 1600 percent in one year. That’s a huge increase! The upside is that foreclosures present an opportunity for people to buy cheaper houses, especially at the higher level where one can purchase mansions at a steal!